Poll results: Let the feds set up Nashville’s health exchange

My prediction is Haslam will knucle under and get the State to set up the exchanges, even tho the Tennessee Health Freedom Act protects us from the mandate. Setting up an exchange will be counter productive with this State law they passed to protect us from Obamacare.

State Rep. Rick Womick, R-Rockvale, said Tuesday he believes the General Assembly’s passage of the Health Care Freedom Act in 2011 prevents the Legislature from passing any health care exchange.“It’s unlawful for us to do it,” Womick said.

‘I think if the governor signs this, in January when it comes to the General Assembly to be ratified, it won’t be ratified in either house,’ said Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, chairman of the Senate Majority Caucus.”

Contact Sen. Ketron to thank him for his stance and encourage him to continue to stand strong against a state exchange.

615-741-6853
sen.bill.ketron@capitol.tn.gov

Tennessee is one of 10 states that have yet to declare whether they will set up a new state-run health insurance exchange as part of Obamacare or if they’ll allow the federal government to create and run the program.

While Gov. Bill Haslam is still mulling his options — he has until Dec. 14 to announce his intentions — readers made their preference clear in a recent Nashville Business Journal online poll.

Of 675 responses in the unscientific poll, 61 percent voted for “Let the feds do it. Tennessee didn’t ask for this.”

Nineteen percent said Haslam should opt for a state-run exchange, “because it’s good policy,” while 18 percent said a state-run exchange is “the lesser of two evils,” as Haslam himself has said.